Thursday, March 28, 2013

Janet has recently taken on learning about instructional technologies for the classroom. Part of her time has been learning about iPads, their usefulness as a classroom tool and related apps. We've gotten into a few discussions about some of the questions that arise when looking at some of these 'educational tools.' Do these apps add anything to the reading experience? Are they educational, entertaining, distracting or altogether off-putting? Do they replace the physical book? What is lost without the physical book if anything? and so on.

Below is Janet's first feature about one of these book apps. If you've had experiences with some book apps please feel free to drop us a line in the comments box and let us know your thoughts.

One of the projects that I have been
working on for the last little while is the development of a set of iPad books
and apps that might be of value in a school classroom. This has been an
interesting project (not the least because I get to play a little bit) because
it brings up all sorts of questions around the use of iPads in the classroom.
Today’s question is “When is a book better off as an app or digital book?”

This question seems to come to everyone
interested in books and where books are going. There is a school of thought
that digitally created and enhanced books will eventually be the choice of
people who read – those people who choose to continue reading paper books will
be seen to be people who are firmly stuck in old ways of thinking.

In consultation with Tammy, I have taken
the opportunity to purchase several book apps that we also have as hard-cover
books here in the Doucette. We initially wanted to explore them first of all as
support for the physical books – but secondly, as stand-alone opportunities to
read. For me, I wanted to discover what the app might offer that enhances the
reading experience for the reader, be they a small child or a young adult.

The first app that I purchased is the picture
book Memoirs of a goldfish by Devin Scillian. This is the story of a goldfish
and life in his fish-bowl The book starts with the fish swimming in his bowl,
all alone. It proceeds through to the point where there is the fish, a toy,
plants, a snail, a crab (I assume a plastic one) a sunken pirate ship and on
and on. He has a little meltdown and is moved to a small bowl all alone. But he
discovers that, as crowded and busy as it was, he misses everyone – and when he
is moved back to a larger tank with all his new friends, he realizes they are
all part of a family. And then he meets a girl goldfish. And they lived happily
ever after. (Sarcasm unintended – it really is a cute story.)

In my opinion, the book app does not add
much to the story. Except for some animation of the narrator fish (who remains
nameless) and a few bubbles, the story tells itself, with few distractions –
but also with few things that make it a “stand-out” book app, one that is head
and tails above the standard issue hard copy book. In fact, because the screen
size is limited, the picture book (hardcopy) does a much better job of
displaying the full bowl across two pages, especially when the storyline is on
one screen, and the picture is on the next, so that the overall visual is split
up. And getting back to the start of the book means a page menu has to be
swiped up and the reader has to scroll backwards or forwards to find the page
he/she wants.

There is one advantage – the book app has
the option of allowing the child to be read to without the presence of an
adult. And as the voice narrates, the text turns red, so that a child can
follow along and know what words are being read on which page. As a parent,
part of me thinks this might be a good thing, particularly for those days when
chaos reigns – but, on the other hand, nothing can replace reading to a child
in your lap (whether it is on an iPad or a book).

Part 2 – A YA book and a YA app? Or does
having the accompanying soundtrack make the book better?

I hadn't realized that Matt
Damon was co-founder of Water.Org, an organization that raises awareness and money to improve access to clean water
for millions of people in Central America, Africa and Asia. Water.org looks to do this through financial
support, local involvement, and sustainable technology.

It
is estimated that nearly 10% of the global disease burden could be reduced
through improved water supply, sanitation, hygiene, and water resource
management. (from Water.org)

In addition to developing
clean water supplies, is increasing education about sanitation issues. Improper, or total lack of waste disposal,
especially human waste, is a major factor contributing to contaminated water, which in turn causes disease such as cholera, typhoid and typhus.

90%
of the deaths due to diarrheal diseases are children under 5 years old, mostly
in developing countries. (from Water.org)

Check out Water.org’s
website for loads of resources to support informing and teaching about global
water issues. One page includes lesson plans for elementary, junior and senior
high levels. These include correlation
to American curriculum standards, information about water issues and
activities.

People
living in informal settlements (i.e. slums) often pay 5-10 times more per liter
of water than wealthy people living in the same city.
(from Water.org)

These issues are of such
importance that the United Nations has designated March 22nd as World Water Day, a day to raise awareness
about global issues related to clean water and accessibility (or to lack of
access, as the case may be). This year’s
focus is on cooperative management of water resources.

If you’re looking for a good
resource for the classroom check out Poop Happened!: a History of the World from the Bottom Up by Sarah Albee.This is a well-written historical account of the impact of sanitation
issues on humans and development on civilization.Her focus is primarily on Europe and North America.The
tone is somewhat jocular but conveys a great deal of information best suited
for upper elementary and junior high students (grades 5/6 to 9).

Also, look for Toilets of the Worldby Morna Gregory and Sian James. This is a pictorial
waltz through bathrooms from around the world giving us the good, the bad and
the ugly not to mention very strange. I blogged about this one
sometime ago.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Recently, I was asked to do
a workshop that focused on resources for inclusive education.This was a first for me and proved to be an
interesting challenge.How many books
could I promote that covered a range of ideas about diverse students in today’s
classrooms?What should a good book that
portrays a child with exceptional needs look like?

This meant doing some
reading of my own about this topic and I found a couple of interesting articles
that provided different criteria for evaluating books for stereotypes about
disabilities specifically. (See list at
the end of posting.)

A well known artist, who had
learning issues as a child, also has physical challenges that he’s had to
overcome to pursue this career as an artist.
Again, the format of the book is intriguing and the story inspirational.

Before Helen Keller there
was Laura Bridgman. I hadn't come across
Laura’s story before and thought this was a fascinating look at how Laura paved
the way for blind/deaf people in the 1800s, including Helen.

Fiction

I had a whole slew of fantastic
books but could only focus on a few, due to time constraints.

This novel takes place in
1965 in rural Saskatchewan
and gives us insight as to how disabilities were regarded in a small community. Emaline is severely injured by her father in
a farming accident. After he deserts the
family because of guilt, Emaline’s mother decides that her only recourse is to
hire Angus, a patient from a nearby mental institution. This is told in narrative verse, another
format that can sometimes appeal to students struggling to read.

A lovely, gentle picture book
about a girl, Cindy, who wants to adopt a stray puppy she’s found in a back
alley on a cold, rainy day. Though it’s
never directly mentioned, we see that Cindy has Down Syndrome. She lives in a group home that does not allow
her to keep the puppy. But
circumstances, at the hospice she works at are such that they adopt the puppy. This story is ‘just’ about a girl who really
wants a dog of her own. This is not
about a girl with Down Syndrome.

One in a trilogy by Patricia
Polacco about her experiences growing up with learning disabilities. I really enjoyed all three longish picture
books. See also, Thank you Mr. Falker
and The
Art of Miss Chew.

I really liked this picture
book when I read it last summer. It’s
about a very independent blind boy. When
he starts at a new school the other kids in his class are eager to help him,
but he always says “no thanks”. But when
it comes to playing kick ball, it’s only when the kids work together that they
come up with a solution that gets Davey into the game. After having read some of the various
criteria to use when reviewing books like this, I did question that it’s not
Davey who comes up with the solution but one of this classmates. Having the non-disabled figure out the
problem/solution? is less then desirable.

Both of these novels blew my
socks off. I loved the two main
characters Melody and Auggie (respectively) and introduced them as if they were
two students that student-teachers could have in their class.

I described who Melody and Auggie are, some
good qualities and the nature of their disabilities. I did eventually introduce the books and
again, a few criteria that they should consider when selecting books like these
for classroom use.

This Canadian Governor
General’s award winner is a good classroom tool that cautions about the use of ‘labelling’. Ten birds find ways to cross a river. The
first nine (who are all somehow brilliant) devise ingenious contraptions that
allow them to pass over, under, through the river. Whereas the tenth bird named Needs
Improvement just walks across the bridge that has been there the whole
time. Fantastic illustrations.

This ‘novelized-graphic
novel’ (or is it, ‘illustrated novel’) includes a deaf girl as a main character
in one of the storylines. I brought this
one in to highlight the interesting format of the book (sections of text are
interspersed with long sections of illustrations with no accompanying text.)

I did not recommend this book. Though it tells the story of
a blind, Native American boy, the book is not recommended in The Broken Flute (edited by Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale, 2006) as it
portrays the Native Americans in an inauthentic way. This is a ‘classic’ children’s picture book
that is often used in classrooms. I
wanted to raise awareness about the many issues that need to be considered when
selecting classroom resources.

This link from Smart in the Inside takes you to a pretty comprehensive list of juvenile resources (fiction and nonfiction) about specific learning conditions and disabilities compiled by Kathy Young.

Monday, March 11, 2013

By looking at current
forensics practices, archaeologists, historians, and artists delve into the
stories of people who lived and died long ago. There is an aura of mystery as skeletons are
found in seemingly unlikely places when long forgotten cemeteries are rediscovered
as sewer lines are dug up or new buildings are constructed.

What happens to the bones of
people who lived in times so different from our own when they are disinterred?

Mostly, the bones get
studied. Scientists look to see how
these individuals died, how old they were, how hard they worked, or how well or
poorly they ate. Further research about
the place the bones were buried typically provides additional information about
their living conditions and the context of their death, if they were part of a
larger historical event such as a battle, an epidemic or shipwreck or died of
more everyday causes like old age and poor health.

For me, the best part of
this book is when the faces of our ancestors stare back at us. Artists’ recreating the faces is a
fascinating process that has its roots going back to the 1800s.

The life stories of American
sailors, soldiers, slaves, servants, orphans, and the mentally ill are told
here. This nonfiction book has a great
sense of narrative like that of a mystery novel.

Again, investigators try to
find out who the people are and how they died.
This book presents the processes used to solve cases of unidentified
remains and missing persons in a more factual, typical nonfiction format. Interesting ‘cases’ are interspersed
throughout that pose a situation where human bodies have been found and then
how the cases were resolved. This book
gives us a very good sense about the wonders and sometimes the limitations of
technology.

Suggested for grades 4-8.

Every Bone Tells a Story: HomininDiscoveries, Deductions, and Debates by Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw have just arrived at the
Doucette Library. It’s now been added to
my TBR (to-be-read) pile. Without having
read the book and glancing through its table of contents this book will focus
on remains of humans from thousands of years of ago, such as the Kennewick Man
(9,000 years ago), Otzi the Iceman (5300 ya), Turkana Boy (1,600,000 ya) and
the Lapedo Child (24,500 ya). Here too
there is lots of information about the science that goes into becoming
reacquainted with our ancestors. Each chapter has section entitled 'Deductions' and 'Debates' suggesting the dynamic nature of investigative research.

Suggested for grades 8 to
12.

Today is Nonfiction Monday being hosted at Sally's Bookshelf. Check out the interesting list of recommended nonfiction children's lit.

Monday, March 4, 2013

After having read several reviews recommending the graphic novel version of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle, adapted and illustrated by Hope Larson, I had high expectations about revisiting this story. Hope Larson's other graphic novelsMercury and Chiggers had been most enjoyable so there was lots to look forward to.

The book arrives, I take it home and merrily begin zipping through it. About a third of the way in, I start to feel a little dissatisfied. Not really disappointed but I kept feeling like something was missing.

I had read the novel sometime in the 80s (a long time ago -- I know!) and remember loving the book. I loved the characters and found the plot fascinating. I remember being gripped. But because my initial consumption of the book was a long time ago and my memory isn't what it use to be I was a little vague on some of the details of story. I had envisioned tucking it the graphic novel to revisit old friends in far-out worlds and I wondered why I was not enthralled with the graphic novel. Was it my faulty memory?

I realized a little further on that the graphic novel gives us primarily dialogue and without L'Engle's beautifully written descriptive passages I felt like I was reading a Coles Notes version of the book. The plot was pretty much the way I remember it. All the characters were accounted for. The visual aspect of the book was working for me but my imagination wasn't able to recreate the world that L'Engle had created with her words.

Going back into the office I mentioned this to work-mates Janet H. (occasional guest blogger) and Lynn K. I discovered that Janet had read it like me sometime ago and that Lynn had never picked up the book. I thought it would be interesting, if the they were keen to read the graphic novel, if we all wrote up our responses as a blog posting. I was hopeful that Janet or Lynn would find it really good like many other reviewers and show me why it was supposedly such a good adaptation of the novel.

Being the good eggs that they are, they both agreed to this and their responses followed.

I would recommend this book. It is highly accessible in terms of characters and plot and struggling readers will keep up. I just keep thinking that they'll be missing something if they never read the original story.

By Janet.

Notes on “A wrinkle in time” – the graphic,
the original, the audio. Because when Tammy gives me an assignment, I want to
do it PROPERLY!!

First of all – I read “A wrinkle in time”
many years ago – so far back that although I remembered the story, I didn't remember the details (I'm old – forgive me). In fact, the edition in the
Doucette is from 1964, so we know I am talking MANY years ago. So I approached
the graphic novel with some enthusiasm. I could knock it off quickly and
refresh my memory. All good, right?

Well, no, not really. I found myself
getting restless by about page 94. I couldn't remember why I had thought this
book was special – and the graphic novel wasn't capturing it. But sometimes
that happens – a much loved story read when you are young can often be less
successful the second time around.

I went back to the original novel, hoping
to capture some of what I loved about the original story. And I did. L’Engle’s
use of language, her ability to really TELL a story – the descriptions of Meg,
Charles Wallace and Calvin wrinkling through time brought back my original
enthusiasm for the book. And although I caught some things the second time
around that I didn't remember from my first reading (the Christian themes threw
me, as did the rather quick ending), I would still whole-heartedly recommend
this book.

Oh – and I listened to it as well. I
thought it would save me time as I could move back and forth between the
written (read before bed) and the listening (in my car on the way to work,
meetings etc.) The reader did an admirable job of capturing what I thought the
voices should be and the story held firm in my memory.

My problem with the graphic novel? For me,
it was mainly the graphics. The
production value of the book at first glance seems high. The book is a hard
cover and the cover shows a dark, rich blue-black sky, with a few twinkling
stars and the three main characters in colour. But the graphics inside are in
blue and black only – and I found it a challenge sometimes to determine just
what is happening, in the rush through time and darkness/light. The art could
have captured, in part, what is not there in words. Full colour would have
allowed the reader to see the vastness of the dark from atop Mrs.Whatsit’s back
or see the exact moment when Charles Wallace goes “under” the influence of IT.
Instead, the vacancy of his eyes is only partially captured (only so much can
be done with black, blue and white, I guess). The magic of the original story
was in the strength of the language and the descriptions. When that was
removed, the story was, for me, much less colourful and left me not really
satisfied that I had the full story.

By Lynn.

A Wrinkle in Time: the graphic novel

I had never read A Wrinkle in Time, so agreed to read both
the graphic novel and original versions and write about my reactions. First, I
read the graphic adaptation. It was
interesting to read, though a bit slow to start. I found the initial character
and story set-up to be long, and somewhat tedious and confusing done in
pictures. The black and blue illustrations were really annoying at first, but
once I got into the story, they were not as noticeable and the narrative sped
along. The story itself was straightforward, though it seemed to end in a bit
of a rush.

Then I read the original prose version. It was much quicker
to set the scene and establish characters, which was done in only a page or two
compared to several in the graphic version.
There was also more scope for description of surroundings and emotions. The
graphic adaptation was very faithful to the original, so there were no
surprises in the story. The only time I remembered the pictures were for the
unusual creatures such as Aunt Beast. Otherwise I was content to let my
imagination work and not be bound by someone else’s vision. I preferred the original prose version for
this reason, but would certainly recommend the graphic novel for those who like
the format and reluctant readers who would find the combination of pictures and
words easier to handle.

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About Me

I am the reference coordinator at The Doucette Library of Teaching Resources, a curriculum library in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary.
I love connecting education students and teachers with engaging and exciting resources for classroom teaching. I believe that resources that get me excited (or those that get you excited) are the ones with the best potential to get kids interested in learning about - well, everything. Finding those books that connect to the real world are the ones I enjoy promoting the most.